1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to pillow cases.
2. Prior Art
Many young children like to bring their playthings to sleep. They often feel a sense of security when cuddling with their favorite bedtime companion, such as a plush animal or a toy. However, the plaything often moves around under the sheets or may even fall behind the headboard during the night, so that the child may be unable to find it in the morning.
A child's pillow case is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,318 to Lorizio. It includes a pillow receiving compartment with a soft fringe around its perimeter. A pair of tubular sacks are each attached to the absolute perimeter of the pillow receiving compartment by detachable fasteners. The sacks do not overlap the sides of the pillow receiving compartment. When the sacks are laden with dolls, the soft fringe cannot support them in a horizontal position, so they droop downward below the top plane of the pillow case and out of the child's line of sight. Therefore, the child cannot see the dolls when lying on the pillow. The sacks are parallel to the side edges of the compartment, so that they may tip and cause the dolls to fall out. The compartment has closed sides. A transverse opening is arranged across the back for inserting a pillow, but such an opening makes inserting a pillow relatively difficult.
In March of 1998, the inventors of the present invention offered a prior art pillow case for sale. As shown in FIG. 1, it is comprised of a tubular bag 10 with a closed end 11 and an open end 12 or receiving a conventional pillow. Bag 10 is substantially longer than a standard pillow of about 25 inches (63.5 cm) wide. When a standard size pillow 13, i.e., the smallest size conventional pillow, is fully inserted into bag 10 against closed end 11, a loose extension 14 is provided on the side of open end 12. A flat pocket 15 with an opening 17 for holding a toy 16 is attached to extension 14 near open end 12 at a position substantially spaced from an adjacent end of pillow 13. Pocket 15 is substantially orthogonal to a longitudinal side of bag 10 to present the side of toy 16 to a child. As shown in FIG. 2, due to the length of extension 14 and the position of pocket 15, toy 16 is positioned well below a top plane 18 of bag 10, and therefore out of a line of sight 19 of the child.